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Russia’s war against Ukraine

Fire breaks out after a Russian attack in Kherson, Ukraine on August 2, 2025. (Kherson Regional Military Administration/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Ukraine’s drone strike reportedly sparks fire at oil depot in Russia’s Sochi. A drone strike resulted in a major fire early on Aug. 3 at an oil depot in Russia’s resort city of Sochi, setting ablaze a 2,000-cubic-meter fuel tank, local authorities said.

Ukraine imposes sanctions against 94 individuals, 5 entities, including captains of Russia’s shadow fleet. President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree on Aug. 3 imposing sanctions against 94 individuals and five legal entities, primarily targeting the captains of Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” vessels.

Zelensky appoints new head of Ukrainian Air Force after year-long vacancy. President Volodymyr Zelensky announced the appointment of Lieutenant General Anatoliy Kryvonozhko, who has been serving as the Air Force’s acting head since the end of last August.

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‘Work on lists is ongoing’ — Ukraine, Russia preparing to exchange 1,200 POWs each, Zelensky says. Work is ongoing between Ukraine and Russia as the warring parties prepare to each exchange 1,200 Prisoners of War (POWs), President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Aug. 3.

Ukraine’s law enforcement uncovers drone procurement corruption scheme involving lawmakers. Oleksii Kuznetsov, a member of parliament who belongs to Zelensky’s Servant of the People party, allegedly accepted kickbacks for inflating military contracts. He has been dismissed from his parliamentary faction pending the outcome of the case.

Trump says envoy may visit Russia ahead of peace deal deadline. U.S. President Donald Trump said that his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, may travel to Russia on Aug. 6 or 7 — just days before a deadline for Moscow to reach a peace deal with Ukraine or face secondary tariffs targeting its oil exports.

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Ukraine war latest: Ukrainian drones target Shahed storage site, industrial facilities in Russia; Strikes hit oil depot in Sochi

A series of drone attacks targeted industrial facilities in Russia’s Ryazan, Penza, Samara and Voronezh oblasts overnight on Aug. 2, Ukraine’s General Staff reported. In Ryazan, an oil refinery was reportedly struck, with videos shared on social media showing a large pillar of fire near the site.

Photo: Serhii Mykhalchuk / Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images

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Human cost of Russia’s war

General Staff: Russia has lost 1,056,130 troops in Ukraine since Feb. 24, 2022

The number includes 920 casualties Russian forces suffered just over the past day.

Russian missile strike against Mykolaiv injures 7. A Russian missile strike hit the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv overnight on Aug. 3, injuring seven and damaging homes and civilian infrastructure, according to Ukrainian officials.

Trump runs out of patience with Russia | Ukraine This Week

International response

Trump aide accuses India of financing Russia’s war in Ukraine. In an Aug. 3 Fox News interview, senior Trump aide Stephen Miller accused India of helping fund Russia’s war in Ukraine by continuing to import oil from Moscow.

German politician calls for reduced benefits for Ukrainian refugees. Markus Soder, Prime Minister of the German state of Bavaria, has called for an end to citizen’s allowance payments for Ukrainian refugees, proposing that new arrivals instead receive reduced benefits under the country’s Asylum Seekers Benefits Act.

In other news

Russia, China conduct joint drills in Sea of Japan. The Russian and Chinese navies are conducting joint military exercises in the Sea of Japan, the Kremlin said Aug. 3, just days after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the deployment of nuclear submarines in a show of force toward Moscow.

‘Armed with bats and metal pipes‘ — Casualties reported after civilians allegedly attack draft officer in Mykolaiv Oblast. Civilians allegedly attacked a recruitment officer in the village of Buzke in Mykolaiv Oblast on Aug. 3, the regional Territorial Recruitment Center reported.

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https://www.mdpi.com/0718-1876/20/3/197

As the global population ages, older adults face growing psychological challenges such as loneliness, cognitive decline, and loss of social roles. Meanwhile, artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, including chatbots and voice-based systems, offer new pathways to emotional support and mental stimulation. However, older adults often encounter significant barriers in accessing and effectively using AI tools. This review examines the current landscape of AI applications aimed at enhancing psychological well-being among older adults, identifies key challenges such as digital literacy and usability, and highlights design and training strategies to bridge the digital divide. Using socioemotional selectivity theory and technology acceptance models as guiding frameworks, we argue that AI—especially in the form of conversational agents—holds transformative potential in reducing isolation and promoting emotional resilience in aging populations. We conclude with recommendations for inclusive design, participatory development, and future interdisciplinary research.

https://www.mdpi.com/2813-9844/7/3/68

Despite QUIC handshake packets being encrypted, the Great Firewall of China (GFW) has begun blocking QUIC connections to specific domains since April 7, 2024. In this work, we measure and characterize the GFW’s censorship of QUIC to understand how and what it blocks. Our measurements reveal that the GFW decrypts QUIC Initial packets at scale, applies heuristic filtering rules, and uses a blocklist distinct from its other censorship mechanisms. We expose a critical flaw in this new system: the computational overhead of decryption reduces its effectiveness under moderate traffic loads. We also demonstrate that this censorship mechanism can be weaponized to block UDP traffic between arbitrary hosts in China and the rest of the world. We collaborate with various open-source communities to integrate circumvention strategies into Mozilla Firefox, the quic-go library, and all major QUIC-based circumvention tools.

Exposing and Circumventing SNI-based QUIC Censorship of the Great Firewall of China

Since April 2024, the Great Firewall of China (GFW) has been censoring QUIC traffic to specific domains. Our findings show the GFW decrypts QUIC Initial packets at scale and employs a unique blocklist.

^{GFW Report}

Despite the extensive, highly detailed and good-faith engagements by rightsholder communities throughout this process, the final outcomes fail to address the core concerns which our sectors – and the millions of creators and companies active in Europe which we represent – have consistently raised. The result is not a balanced compromise; it is a missed opportunity to provide meaningful protection of intellectual property rights in the context of GenAI and does not deliver on the promise of the EU AI Act itself.

The feedback of the primary beneficiaries these provisions were meant to protect has been largely ignored in contravention of the objectives of the EU AI Act as determined by the co-legislators and to the sole benefit of the GenAI model providers that continuously infringe copyright and related rights to build their models. In 2024, the cultural and creative sectors across Europe welcomed the principles of responsible and trustworthy AI enshrined in the EU AI Act, intended to ensure mutually beneficial growth of innovation and creativity in Europe.

Today, with the EU AI Act implementing package as it stands, thriving cultural and creative sectors and copyright intensive industries in Europe which contribute nearly 7% of EU GDP, provide employment for nearly 17 million professionals and have an economic contribution larger than European pharmaceutical, automobile or high-tech industries, are being sold out in favour of those GenAI model providers. The deployment of GenAI models which also make extensive use of scraping is already underway. The damage to and unfair competition with the cultural and creative sectors can be seen each day. The cultural and creative sectors must be safeguarded, as they are the foundations of our cultures and the Single Market. We wish to make it clear that the outcome of these processes does not provide a meaningful implementation of the GPAI obligations under the AI Act.

We strongly reject any claim that the Code of Practice strikes a fair and workable balance or that the Template will deliver “sufficient” transparency about the majority of copyright works or other subject matter used to train GenAI models. This is simply untrue and is a betrayal of the EU AI Act’s objectives.

Joint statement by a broad coalition of rightsholders regarding the AI Act implementation measures adopted by

EPC joins a broad coalition of European and global authors, performers, publishers, producers and other rightsholder organisations, to formally express our dissatisfaction with the published GPAI Code of Practice, the GPAI Guidelines, and the Templat…

^{EPC (epceurope)}

Is Briar a good option for encrypted messaging and file transfer?

After the Matrix file upload limit thing, I'm looking to move away from the messages stored on a server paradigm both to avoid having to pay for file uploads and because it doesn't make sense to host files on a server indefinitely if they're only intended for one other person and don't need to be kept for very long.

https://cybernews.com/security/developer-protests-uk-age-gating-with-mock-mp-ids/

I have uploaded the photos I took at Saturday’s DCI Williamsport show in Williamsport, PA to my Smugmug account. You can view them at this link or via the galleries below.

Sacramento Freelancers

kevingamin.smugmug.com/frame/s…

Bluecoats Rhythm in BLUE

kevingamin.smugmug.com/frame/s…

Hawthorne Caballeros Alumni

kevingamin.smugmug.com/frame/s…

Sunrisers

kevingamin.smugmug.com/frame/s…

White Sabers

kevingamin.smugmug.com/frame/s…

Rogues Hollow Regiment

kevingamin.smugmug.com/frame/s…

Bushwackers

kevingamin.smugmug.com/frame/s…

Connecticut Hurricanes

kevingamin.smugmug.com/frame/s…

Hawthorne Caballeros

kevingamin.smugmug.com/frame/s…

Music City

kevingamin.smugmug.com/frame/s…

Troopers

kevingamin.smugmug.com/frame/s…

Blue Stars

kevingamin.smugmug.com/frame/s…

Phantom Regiment

kevingamin.smugmug.com/frame/s…

In order to prevent a quorum, state representatives in the Texas House are leaving the state to combat what one Democratic lawmaker called "the rot at the core of our broken political system."

Texas Democrats Flee State to Thwart Trump-Led Plot Against Democracy

^{jon-queally (Common Dreams)}

Switch 2 and online membership pricing “will remain unchanged at this time.”

Citing “market conditions,” Nintendo hikes prices of original Switch consoles

Switch 2 and online membership pricing “will remain unchanged at this time.”…

^{Andrew Cunningham (Ars Technica)}

Between 2010 and 2021, unilateral sanctions caused over 500,000 deaths annually, surpassing yearly global deaths from armed conflict.

Archived version: archive.is/newest/peoplesdispa…

Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.

A volcano on Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula has erupted for the first time in hundreds of years

Archived version: archive.is/newest/independent.…

Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.

A volcano in Russia’s Far East erupts for the first time in centuries

^{The Associated Press (The Independent)}

Former Fox News host boosted lies that Trump lost 2020 election because of electoral fraud

Senate confirms Trump ally Jeanine Pirro as top federal prosecutor for DC

^{Anna Betts (The Guardian)}

Two Palestinian girls were wounded by Israeli army gunfire in the West Bank city of Jenin on Sunday, as illegal settlers set fire to a Palestinian vehicle and scrawled racist graffiti in Hebron in the latest wave of violence across the occupied territory, Anadolu reports.

Archived version: archive.is/newest/middleeastmo…

Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.

Actor has been registered in Florida with one of the two main parties since June 2024, according to public voting records

Sydney Sweeney’s voter registration emerges amid uproar over controversial American Eagle jeans ad

^{Isabel Keane (The Independent)}

The policy would prevent veterans and their dependents from accessing abortions following rape, incest, or life-threatening emergencies.

Trump administration moves quietly to eliminate life-saving abortions for veterans

^{Mother Jones}

At least 80 people have died and over 2,100 cases have been recorded in Sudan’s five Darfur states until July 30, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Sunday, Anadolu reports.

Archived version: archive.is/newest/middleeastmo…

Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.

A former deputy prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia said the amount of evidence pointing to genocide in Gaza is overwhelming and likened the situation to the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, Anadolu reports.

Archived version: archive.is/newest/middleeastmo…

Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.

Police say 27-year-old charged with ill treatment and neglect of a child after bus driver spotted a bag moving

Archived version: archive.is/20250803181051/theg…

Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.

Woman arrested after travelling with two-year-old in suitcase in New Zealand

^{Guardian staff reporter (The Guardian)}

Six more people die from malnutrition, while Itamar Ben-Gvir is first minister to publicly pray at sensitive site

Archived version: archive.is/20250803214143/theg…

Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.

Israeli forces kill at least 27 at food site while minister’s al-Aqsa visit causes outrage

^{William Christou (The Guardian)}

Exclusive: ‘I have been a part of the system that is wrong. I feel that I ought to be part of the system to put it right,’ says one judge who backs proposals to help those trapped under the ‘unfair’ sentence

Senior judges reveal regret at handing out ‘unfair’ indefinite jail terms and call for scandal to end

^{Amy-Clare Martin (The Independent)}

Authorities say a former US soldier suspected of killing four people at a Montana bar is still at large and believed to be armed.

https://apnews.com/article/montana-shooting-four-dead-michael-paul-brown-38a642f1f2a66ab9e6408fc74766e08e

Georgia firebrand recently broke from her party to condemn Israel’s ‘genocide’ in Gaza – one of the few positions she’s taken in opposition to her party

Marjorie Taylor Greene hints that she might be finished with the GOP: ‘I don’t know if the Republican Party is leaving me’

^{Ariana Baio (The Independent)}

"One has to be blind not to see that Israel has completely lost the majority of the world—including in the West."

Archived version: archive.is/newest/commondreams…

Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.

'Stop Genocide!' 300,000 March Across Sydney Bridge for Gaza

^{common-dreams-staff (Common Dreams)}

Civil Guard divers have recovered the bodies of a former US Army fighter pilot and his 13-year-old son after their small plane crashed into the sea near Port de Sóller, Mallorca. The crash occurred during an acrobatic flight in a Team Rocket F4 Raider registered N31VX on Saturday evening, shortly after takeoff from Binissalem airfield.

https://www.aviation24.be/miscellaneous/accidents/bodies-of-pilot-and-son-recovered-after-plane-crash-off-port-de-soller-mallorca/

The Polish interior minister announced that the relevant regulation had been issued last Friday and submitted to the European Commission for notification

Archived version: archive.is/20250803195341/eura…

Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.

Ryanair departures from Eindhoven Airport faced major delays on Sunday, largely due to ongoing staff shortages at ground handling firm Skytanking, the airport confirmed. Departing flights were most affected, though some arrivals were also delayed earlier in the day.the

https://www.aviation24.be/airports/eindhoven/ryanair-flights-delayed-at-eindhoven-airport-due-to-staff-shortages/

To keep solar power stations from getting lazy, Sandia National Laboratories scientist John Sandusky is looking to give heliostat mirrors a side hustle. At the National Solar Thermal Test Facility he's experimenting with getting them to hunt for asteroids at night.

Solar power plant repurposed to hunt asteroids at night

^{David Szondy (New Atlas)}

At least 68 migrants are dead and 74 more missing after a ship sank off the coast of Yemen Sunday, the UN's migration agency said. Tens of thousands of migrants cross the perilous waters between the Horn and Africa and Yemen every year in search of work in Saudi Arabia and the wealthy Gulf states.

Archived version: archive.is/newest/france24.com…

Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.

At least 68 African migrants dead and scores missing after ship capsizes off Yemen coast

^{FRANCE 24}

Programme about performer Bonnie Blue condemned for ‘glamorising and normalising’ extreme pornography

Archived version: archive.is/newest/theguardian.…

Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.

UK pornography taskforce to propose banning ‘barely legal’ content after Channel 4 documentary airs

^{Amelia Gentleman (The Guardian)}

President’s net golf score indicates he has an impressive handicap of around two

White House boasts about Trump’s golf score – days after he was accused of cheating on his own course

^{Ariana Baio (The Independent)}

The British government is looking to pass new legislation to clamp down on people smugglers who use social media to promote their services, including English Channel crossings, fake documentation and accomodation.

Archived version: archive.is/newest/dw.com/en/uk…

Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.

UK: Social media people smugglers to face jail

^{Matt Ford (Deutsche Welle)}

ANALYSIS: The firing of bird flu experts while Trump’s team boasted about the federal response to the crisis was a misleading self-own by the White House

DOGE embarrasses Trump again with accidental bird flu expert firings

^{John Bowden (The Independent)}

Over 3,200 union machinists around St Louis expected to strike at midnight on Monday as they seek new contract

US Boeing defense workers slated to strike after rejecting latest offer

^{Guardian staff reporter (The Guardian)}

The backlash continues after a large swath of sexually explicit games were removed from Steam and Itch--along with games that feature LGBTQ content and themes.

Link to giveaway: items.gog.com/freedomtobuy/ind…

GOG Launches NSFW Game Giveaway "To Raise Awareness On Censorship In Gaming"

^{Phil Hornshaw (GameSpot)}